


Seven People who foiled Helmut Zemo's plan of tearing the Avengers apart (one of whom got to do it twice).

by salable_mystic



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Decisions, Bittersweet, Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Decisions, M/M, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, might have beens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 15:39:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13437915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salable_mystic/pseuds/salable_mystic
Summary: Helmut Zemo's plan, for all its careful planning, intricate timing, and general deviousness, depended a lot on people and the choices they made. And people are, even to the best of minds and at the best of times, rarely predictable. And the Avengers, even when divided over the Accords and struggling among themselves, for better or worse, for too much trust or too little, do not fall to such petty plans so very easily ... .A story of forks in the road, where the universe might have zigged instead of zagged.





	Seven People who foiled Helmut Zemo's plan of tearing the Avengers apart (one of whom got to do it twice).

**Author's Note:**

> Not that one can tell from the final fic, but this is for/was inspired by the "Steve with his head in his hands" art square on my Stony Bingo card.
> 
> Some snippets of dialogue are taken from "Captain America: Civil War" and "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (obviously).

 

\- - - - - - - -

 

7\. Steve Rogers

 

“Tony. Tony.”

“Did you know?”

“I didn't know it was him.”

“Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?”

“Yes.”

When Tony punches him, Steve just goes with it.

It hurts, sure, and every instinct in him is screaming at him to punch back, to react, to protect Bucky, to make Tony stop … but he doesn’t. He can tell from the way Tony is acting that he isn’t thinking rationally at all right now, overcome with rage and sorrow and grief and betrayal, both from what he just had to see on Zemo’s flickering screen and also from Steve having known and not told him.

Steve deserves this.

He knew, and he didn’t tell Tony – half afraid to lose Tony’s friendship, of losing the possibility, the unfulfilled potential of there maybe sometime being more between them than friendship, half afraid of it making Tony unwilling to help him find and heal Bucky … the revelation, here, now, has come at the worst possible moment.

But Steve, for his sins, knows Tony. He knows how to provoke him, how to hurt him, how to get behind his smooth, glib, untouchable façade, what he looks like when he is worried, tense, exhausted, happy, sad … and he also knows that Tony’s not some who is going to keep punching a person who doesn’t fight back, no matter how angry he is at them, no matter if it is Steve, his _friend_ , who has betrayed him. That’s not, has never been, who Tony is. Sure, Tony’s spoiling for a fight right now … but if Steve doesn’t give it to him, he’ll stop. And it is a fight Tony wants, he wants to hurt Steve the way that Tony is hurting right now, the way Steve has hurt Tony with his silence … otherwise he wouldn’t be punching Steve. If he really wanted Steve incapacitated, or Bucky dead, Tony wouldn’t be punching, but rather launching missiles.

So Steve takes the punches, lets Tony drop him to the floor and get over him, and when Bucky makes to react Steve stops him with a sharp, “Bucky, no!”. Thankfully, Bucky listens. Reluctantly, as far as Steve can tell, from what little attention he can spare him, but he listens, and doesn’t, for the time being, interfere.

Tony’s blows sting – the Iron Man suit is strong, and for all his super soldier abilities, metal impacting with his nose still means that Steve’s nose is going to lose and break – but, like Steve knew, at the sight of blood pouring from Steve’s nose, Tony stops, fist half raised to punch Steve again, still kneeling over Steve, his other hand resting on Steve’s ribcage, subduing him, keeping him down.

Still, Steve makes no move to push Tony off, keeps his arms resting on the ground, hands open, defenseless.

They stay like that for a little while, a silent tableau of grief, rage, and betrayal, the cold gaze of Iron Man drilling into Steve’s own, though Steve has no idea if Tony is actually looking at him, or has his eyes closed, or is seeing the video on repeat, seeing the Winter Soldier strangle his mother, or … .

Bucky, bless his quick, sharp-shooter heart, seems to have focused his attention back on the real threat in this horror-show bunker, which is Zemo, still behind his blast-glass window, blessedly silent now.

Finally, Iron Man’s faceplate slides back open, and Tony’s looking down at Steve, breathing hard, eyes red-rimmed and furious, filled with devastation and utter betrayal.

Steve swallows, wants to close his eyes at the sight, but doesn’t dare to look away. He deserves this. Tony’s wrong about the Accords, doesn’t know, cannot see the corruption governments inevitably fall to, driven by his own demons too much to listen to reason, to Steve … but Steve was wrong, not telling Tony about his parents when he found out.

And – Tony came.

For all their disagreements, Tony came to Siberia, to help Steve and protect Bucky. Tony came, came, from the looks of it, the very moment he found out that he’d been believing a lie. Tony came, even though the Accords forbid his coming. Which just goes to show how wrong the Accords are, to Steve’s mind. But the important point, right now, is that Tony came – and that Steve deserves this look of betrayal.

Tony sighs, sounding far too dejected for Steve’s liking, and punches Steve in the shoulder one more time – kind of half-heartedly, really, as it barely stings.

“Damn you, Rogers!” he growls, before shaking his head and sighing again, defeated. He gets up, slowly, as if it pains him to do so, and then – of all things – holds out a hand to help Steve up. Steve feels another flicker of shame add itself to the already rather extensive load on his soul, but he takes the offered hand, grasps the hard Iron Man gauntlet with his gloved hand, wishing he could pull Tony into a hug.

Not that Tony would allow that, now.

Once Steve is on his feet, Tony gets right in his face, and his voice is rough when he says, “I’m going to punch you once a day for every day that you knew and didn’t tell me, Rogers, don’t think that I won’t. Or that I will forget this.”

He whirls, and points a sharp finger at Bucky, “And you had better stay away from me and go with us very, _very_ quietly and willingly once we are done here, or so help me …”.

Bucky stiffens and glares at Tony, but at Steve’s headshake, he subsides, and nods his acquiescence.

Seemingly satisfied – for the moment, anyway – Tony turns his attention back to the blast-glass, behind which Zemo is still observing them, a confused look on his face.

“What,” Tony sneers, his anger refocusing for the moment, and his voice is bitter when he says “did you think that _that_ would be enough to tear apart the Avengers?”

 

 

\- - - - - - -

 

6\. Sam Wilson

 

“Clearly, I made a mistake. Sam, I was wrong.”

“That's a first.”

“Cap is definitely off the reservation but he's about to need all the help he can get. We don't know each other very well. You don't have to...”

On the Raft, Sam shakes his head.

“Sorry, man.”

Stark’s information looks legit, and if this Zemo guy did indeed try to turn Barnes into the Winter Soldier again that’s all kinds of bad news, but clearly it didn’t work, as Barnes was definitely himself during the airport fight, and – Sam doesn’t really know this Stark guy at all. Only from the media and from what Steve’s told him, and that’s kind of a mixed review at best, plus maybe a few brief encounters here and there that haven’t really told him anything.

Sam doesn’t know if he can trust Stark, is the thing, and part of the reason why Sam and the others are locked up here in the Raft in the first place is the disagreement that Steve had with Stark over the Accords.

The disagreement Sam had with Stark over the Accords.

And Steve didn’t want anyone to know where he and Bucky were going. Steve can handle himself. He’s Captain America.

So Sam keeps silent and shrugs, apologetically.

“Wish I could help you, but…”.

And then the thirty seconds are up, and Stark leaves, angry and frustrated.

 

 

\- - - - - -

 

5\. Thaddeus Ross

 

Thaddeus Ross hates Tony Stark. He hates him. Hates him. Hates him. And the Avengers. That self-righteous prick Rogers, and all those other better-than-though super-powered freaks. Imprisonment is what they deserve – and, with this Accords fiasco, at least half of them have finally, finally given him a reason to act against them.

And now here Stark is, on the Raft, all smug and suave and determined, with new information that the psychiatrist in Berlin was in fact a Sokovian intelligence agent who killed the real doctor who was supposed to assess Barnes, and framed the Winter Soldier.

Framed the Winter Soldier?

What the ever-loving-fuck.

Ross is so angry he is practically shaking with it, and while he wants to do nothing more than scream and shout and punch Tony-fucking-Stark in his smug face and sneer and ignore this new evidence, he … can’t. He’s the Secretary of State, and this evidence looks, blast it all, convincing. So, yes, Stark and his willy-nilly-freaks screwed up in Leipzig, and he’s so going to make them pay for it, but for now he needs to put that aside and focus on the new evidence at hand.

So, when Stark says “So? You got the files? Let's reroute the satellites, start facial scanning for this Zemo guy.” Ross sighs, and agrees.

He’s still going to get back at the Avengers for this, somehow. He is.

 

\- - - - -

 

4\. Natasha Romanoff

 

Natasha’s alone in the hangar, at the airport in Leipzig, when Bucky and Steve run in. She’s the only thing between them and the Quinjet, and this one’s going to hurt, she knows.

She faces them, resigned and determined. “You’re not going to stop.”

Steve looks at her, looks her straight in the eye, and replies “You know I can’t.”

Oh, well, it was worth a try. Natasha squares her shoulders, determined. “Then I will have to make you.”

The Black Panther has snuck up behind Steve and Barnes, without then noticing, distracted by Natasha and by how close to the Quinjet and escape they are.

A foolish mistake, being distracted like that. They should know better.

For now, it’s what tips this fight to Natasha’s advantage.

Steve and Barnes are going nowhere.

 

\- - - -

 

3\. James Barnes

 

“Желание.”

Bucky doesn’t know very much about anything right now. What he knows is that he’s tied to a chair, in a cell made from glass, or plastic, or whatever – it looks strong, thick, impenetrable. Well, it ought to be, if it is mean to hold the most dangerous of criminals inside.

He’d been doing okay, surviving on the down-low, in the shadows, trying to keep out of everybody’s attention, trying to piece his fragmentary memories back together.

“Ржавый.”

And then this guy … Steve … showed up and it all went to shit, and they were running and fighting and running and fighting and then he ended up here, and now this psychiatrist is no psychiatrist at all, or maybe he is a psychiatrist, but a vengeful one? … Not that it matters – what matters is that he knows the Winter Soldier activation sequence, and that he is trying to activate the Winter Soldier, right here, right now.

“Семнадцать.”

Which – no. Bucky doesn’t know very much, but he knows that that is not going to happen. Never again.

“Рассвет.”

So Bucky writhes and he pulls and he tears and finally, finally, the manacles give, and he’s out of the chair – but he’s still in this god-damned glass cage and the sequence is almost done and Bucky can feel, feel the Winter Soldier waking up and encroaching on his mind and just – no.

“Печь.”

So, Bucky’s not proud of it, but his hands are free and he’s not getting out of this pod, not in time, and all he needs to do is to Stop The Words … so he covers his ears with his hands, squeezing down as tight as they will go (well, without breaking his skull, his metal arm _is_ wicked strong), and starts to sing.

Something, anything, at the top of his lungs.

It stops the words from reaching him, and that is all that matters.

This cage had better be impenetrable from the outside, too, Bucky thinks, because the maybe-psychiatrist is now trying to access it (though that is foolish, if he gets that door open and Bucky is still Bucky, then there’s no way Bucky won’t get to him before he finishes the Winter Soldier Sequence, and then the guy won’t be saying anything for a while, possibly ever).

And then the door bursts open, and Steve is there.

So are a lot of other people, and there’s screaming and chaos and Bucky still doesn’t know what’s going on – but Steve is there, and from that, Bucky knows that things will be okay.

 

\- - -

 

2\. Georg Richter, German Police

 

Polizeihauptmann Georg Richter doesn’t know what’s up with today, today is weird – which actually is far too often the case, in recent years, and it’s kind of annoying – but he’s six hours into his shift, scanning people into the high security anti-terror facility here in Berlin, and he’s thinking of the dinner he’s going to take his girlfriend to later tonight, when yet another person walks in to scan into the building.

It’s been very busy today, and a lot of high profile people have been coming and going – he scanned in Tony Stark, _Tony_ _Stark_ , Iron Man, earlier today, can you believe it? He still feels a little giddy about that – and a little envious that his colleague over at the other scanner got to scan in Steve Rogers, but still, Iron Man, that’s pretty cool, right?

So, whatever, random new guy, doesn’t look famous at all, but then Georg shouldn’t be greedy, and maybe Mr. Stark will come back later and he can ask him for a selfie … (but if he’s off shift by then, of course and manages to linger … no selfies when on duty!).

What is weird though it that this guy here doesn’t look _anything_ like they person he says he is, which is one Dr. Theo Broussard, internationally reknown psychiatrist, whose information has come up on Georg’s screen once he’s checked for the name on the list of people approved to enter the facility.

The guy who is now … looking at Georg suspiciously.

“Uh, sorry Sir, just a moment, the database is slow to load today, so much going on … .” Georg prevaricates, while pressing the panic button under his desk. This might get him into a world of trouble, but better be safe than sorry, and clearly something is _way_ off here … .

 

\- -

 

1\. Tony Stark

 

“And now, I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words.”

Tony goes with Steve to Peggy Carter’s funeral. For all their disagreement over the Accords, she wasn’t only Steve’s first love, she was also Tony’s Aunt Peggy, and no-one should be alone at a time like this.

After that, Tony, unfortunately, also goes with Natasha to the U.N. meeting in Vienna, to witness the signing of the Accords, so he gets to be there for the bombing and the fall out first hand – and now isn’t that nice and yet another great thing to add to his long list of PTSD triggers – but he’s there when they find out that the suspect is one James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, and so he follows Steve to Romania and gets there in time to head off the German Special Police Forces, and to convince Steve to bring Bucky in on the quiet.

Sure, they’re not really talking to each other right now, with the fallout over the Accords, and they don’t know if Bucky is guilty or not, if he’s the Winter Soldier or not, but shooting on sight, or defending oneself against such orders, especially when it’s two super soldiers against baseline human policemen and women, in a case like this, is not, is never, the answer. That’s part of what the Accords are all about, after all, accountability and due process and international oversight, and the important thing here is keeping any more people from dying.

And that includes one James ‘the Winter Soldier’ Barnes.

 

-

 

 +0. Steve

 

Steve knew, that when Nick Fury asked him if he wanted to come to Europe with him to root out surviving Hydra cells and Steve told him that “There's something I’ve got to do first”, Fury took that to mean that Steve wanted to go and find Bucky. Which – isn’t wrong. He wants, _needs_ to do that. So, there’s two things that Steve needs to do before he can think about joining up with Fury again.

One is finding Bucky, and the other’s … .

The phone rings, once, twice, then is picked up and Tony’s cheerful voice answers. “What’s up, Capsicle? You doing okay? Saw all the shit that went down in D.C., why the hell didn’t you call me? I could have helped!”

“Listen, Tony –” Steve breaks in, to stem the ebullient flow of words. “Tony, I’m sorry I didn’t call, but …”

“Yes, yes,” Tony’s waving a hand, Steve can tell from his voice, “you’ll have to tell me all the reasons why you didn’t think to call in greater detail soon, but since you’re calling me _now_ , and not when shit actually went down and I could have _done something about it_ , I guess this is important? More important than what’s been going on? Though I don’t know what could be more important than Helicarriers crashing into D.C., to be honest. More important things – nope, right now, entirely escape me. But, anyway, nevermind me: what can I do for ya?”

It takes him a moment to realize that Tony has reached the end of his impromptu tirade, but when he does, Steve swallows, hard.

“Listen, Tony, I – there’s something I found out, from the files, I mean, and … I, I really need to tell you about it.”

“Oh?” Tony is, for the moment, quiet, all ears, intent.

“It’s, uh, kind of sensitive, though, so I don’t want to do it over the telephone – can we meet up?”

“Sure thing, Caparoo. Give me a day to contain this deluge of files that you – or, I presume, Natasha, so foolishly and histrionically released on the internet – the fucking _internet_ , Steve – there’s a lot of sensitive information in there, so I am trying to contain that … or, well JARVIS, is … but, anyway, tomorrow? Tomorrow evening could work for me. Want me to come down to D.C. or are you heading up?”

“Well, yes, thank you, Tony, for helping with those files – I’ll, I’ll head up to New York. I’ll see you at the Tower tomorrow night?”

“So you shall! See you then, Steve!”

Tony hangs up, and Steve sighs and rubs his temples. This is going to be hard, and he has no idea how this will impact his friendship with Tony. But it’s Tony’s parents, and Tony deserves to know. And he’d better learn it from Steve, now, and not at some later date from some uncaring stranger, and, knowing their luck, at the worst possible moment.

Tony is Steve’s friend, and friends don’t keep these kinds of things from each other. 

 

.

 

(Turns out, Tony is more than Steve’s friend. Steve goes to New York to see Tony, and Steve tells Tony, tells Tony everything – about Bucky and the Winter Soldier and how Bucky recognized him, in the end and how the Winter Soldier killed Tony’s parents and about SHIELD and Hydra and Fury and … and Tony rages and shouts and is angry for a while, and Steve lets him rage and shout, and then Tony winds down and becomes sad and quiet and when Steve tentatively tries to hug him Tony hugs him back with only the smallest of hesitations, and at some point Tony cries on Steve’s shoulder, and so then Steve stays for another day, a week, a month in the tower, and they talk and keep talking, and Tony, after some days, comes around and helps him look for Bucky, and somewhere in there, in all of that, Tony kisses him, and Steve - Steve kisses him back.)

 


End file.
